Stateside
Samuel Goldwyn Films | Release Date: May 21, 2004 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
35
METASCORE
Generally unfavorable reviews based on 19 Critic Reviews
Positive:
1
Mixed:
10
Negative:
8
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
70
Washington PostStephen Hunter
So unexpected and unpredictable and so full of tiny grace notes that its ultimate collapse seems almost irrelevant. Read full review
50
L.A. WeeklyJohn Patterson
If the contrast between Marine life and blue-blood luxury sometimes pulls the film in awkward directions, Anselmo's perceptive fondness for all his characters -- parents, children, grunts, even drill sergeants -- more than compensates. Read full review
50
New York Daily NewsJack Mathews
The film's biggest problem is its psychologically false ending. Having created a complex relationship, Anselmo seems to throw up his hands at the end and admit he doesn't have a clue about how to resolve it. Read full review
50
Rolling StonePeter Travers
Anselmo, basing his script on a true story, juggles more plots than a full season of "The O.C.," setting his cast adrift in a sea of soap-opera bubbles. Read full review
50
Chicago Sun-TimesRoger Ebert
The performances are strong, although undermined a little by Anselmo's peculiar style of dialogue, which sometimes sounds more like experimental poetry or song lyrics than like speech. Read full review
50
Film ThreatChristopher Zinsli
Though there's nothing especially terrible about Stateside, there's nothing terribly special about it either. Read full review
40
Village VoiceEd Park
Stateside's real-life frame allows the complexities of mental illness and military service to lose dramatic tension, resulting in a desultory home stretch of group therapy, tears, and reconciliation. Read full review
40
The Hollywood ReporterSheri Linden
The finely observed moments in Stateside accumulate little emotional power. The promise of something startling and compelling goes unfulfilled, and the arc of the central love story isn't interesting enough to sustain the drama. Read full review
40
Los Angeles TimesKevin Crust
The film is plagued by Anselmo's inability to focus on the heart of his story. Read full review
40
TV Guide MagazineAngel Cohn
Freighted with far more serious issues than most movies of its kind but neglects or glosses over most of them. Read full review
40
Chicago ReaderJ.R. Jones
This has its moments--most of them thanks to Kilmer and Joe Mantegna as the boy's abusive father--but the troubled romance is unconvincing and the big-name actors hang on the story like ornaments on a spindly tree. Read full review
38
Chicago TribuneRobert K. Elder
Ultimately, Stateside ends up a diluted, scattered drama--less than the sum of its parts, but with an impressive cameo list. Read full review
30
The A.V. ClubKeith Phipps
A mess. Read full review
30
VarietyRobert Koehler
Partially biographical story of a rich kid's unplanned encounter with the Marines and his even more random romance with a schizophrenic movie starlet is contrived and emotionally incomplete, and strained further by self-consciously cockeyed dialogue. Read full review
30
Washington PostMichael O'Sullivan
It's hard to know which is more annoying: The fact that writer-director Reverge Anselmo makes Dori's schizophrenic look like little more than a cute, sexually available lush or that he makes Mark's Marine act like a jarhead with nothing inside except fireflies. Read full review
25
Entertainment WeeklyOwen Gleiberman
If you were looking for an actress to play a tempestuous, schizophrenic movie-slash-rock star, you might go for Courtney Love or Angelina Jolie, or maybe even Jennifer Connelly. But Rachael Leigh Cook? Read full review
25
New York PostMegan Lehmann
Anselmo handles sensitive issues not with kid gloves, but with a metaphorical baseball mitt, fumbling with tone and obviously laboring to force quirks upon characters and situations. Read full review
25
Charlotte ObserverLawrence Toppman
Writer-director Reverge Anselmo has created a movie of ineptness so perfect and unified as to boggle the mind. Read full review
20
The New York TimesStephen Holden
An unsalvageable mess. Read full review
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